Doing Better

We Moved Location
To launch a sweep(rowing) boat with
relative ease we need 6 to 8ft of flat surface less that 1ft off the
water as the blades extend 9 to 10ft from the side of the boat. There
is nowhere on the Jordan river that we can launch a boat and only
one place on the overflow canal that we are able to do this. So the
two competitive junior crews have moved house so to speak and now
thanks to the generosity of Nickerson Company now operate from our
trailers out of Nickerson's factory yard. We boat at Delong street
and have had more outings than any previous years.

Even so thousands of dollars worth of
equipment sit outside in the sun, rain, wind and snow. So we know we
can row on the Surplus canal or the Jordan river, we just need a
proper boathouse to operate from.

New Boathouse
Rowing on the Jordan river or
Overflow canal would have many benefits. It's central location has
easier access, much better conditions and is big enough even for a
boat as big as an eight. A Boathouse on the Jordan river or Overflow canal would give the rowing communities shells protection from weather, vandalism, somewhere to clean and
maintain the equipment as well as easily accessible restrooms. Boats are very expensive and suffer easily
from bumps, dents and accidents all of which need to be repaired some
where dry and accessible. It could also give
easy access to storage and spares, even showers and perhaps a training facility and
social gathering location. We would have storage for club and private
rowing boats as well as public and private storage of canoe's and
kayaks. The site for a purpose built boathouse would require multiple bays for equipment storage, restrooms, parking spaces, and a landing dock which would also require alteration to the bank and sufficient anchors to hold it.

Location, Location, Location
So rowing on a smaller, calmer body of
water would have many advantages. There are two places that rowers
can use. The Jordan river from about 2850 South to 2100 South is
about 2000 meters, plenty wide enough and always has water but is not straight. The
overflow canal is also suitable and has about 2,700meters of row-able
water but we only use about 1,300 meters regularly because of bridges
and crossing roads etc. This stretch is from the junction of Indiana
Ave. and Delong St., to California Ave next to Redwood Rd., this is
not as wide as the Jordan river but is straighter. Its big
disadvantage is the fact that regularly there is not enough water to
row in the spring until approximately 15th April. With our
first regatta normally being about the end of April this gives us 2
to 4 weeks to teach our beginners to row. When many clubs have been
practicing for months this leaves us at a distinct disadvantage.
There are a number of potential locations but any location would need
to be discussed at length to try to change preconceived ideas and
plans to allow us to use it.

Who Rows?
Currently there are four rowing clubs.
Great Salt Lake Rowing is open to anyone who wants to row from about
14 to 114. Utah Junior Crew which is open to school age youth mainly
students from West High and other downtown High Schools. Waterford crew open to people attending Waterford high school in
Sandy. Finally Huntsman Cancer rowing which is for cancer survivors from Huntsman Cancer Center. This is approximately about 60-70 youth and 20-30 adults in
total. The Great Salt Lake rowing club still operates from the Salt
Lake marina but many individuals would love to have easy access to
the river. There is room for expansion in all our programs to give a
lot more people the enjoyment of rowing. A location on the Jordan river would also give us a higher profile and people may actually realize there is rowing available in Utah.